The present invention relates to an information recording/reproducing apparatus such as an optical disk apparatus that records information to be stored on, or reproduces or erases information from an optical medium or a magneto-optical medium (an information medium) such as an optical disk. Particularly, the present invention relates to an information recording/reproducing apparatus in which information is recorded on, or reproduced or erased from a portable information medium.
The optical memory technique using an optical disk with a pit-shaped pattern as a high-density and mass storage medium has been put into practical use while expanding its application range to a digital audio disk, a video disk, a document file disk, and further a data file. Particularly, optical disks on which information can be recorded with high density, such as DVD-RAM, have been merchandised in recent years. Thus, easy recording of mass digital data on an optical disk has been realized gradually.
Digital data can be copied without any deterioration in its quality, which is an excellent feature. However, because of the excellent feature copyright protection becomes an indispensable condition.
Some proposals for protecting copyright already have been made. For example, a conventional example is disclosed in Publication of Unexamined Japanese Patent Application (Tokkai-Hei) No. 7-21987. It is the object of the conventional example to prevent creative works from being changed and published without authorization. In a system disclosed in the Publication, when information has been recorded on an optical disk by copying or changing a part of original information, the optical disk cannot be ejected from a recording apparatus before the recorded information is erased.
In the aforementioned conventional example, it is possible to prevent creative works from being changed and then published without authorization. However, the production of so-called pirated versions by copying the entire creative work without any change cannot be prevented. In addition, it also is not possible to copy or change a part of an existing creative works to make use of it for the purpose of personal hobby, which has been a problem.
The present invention seeks to solve the above-mentioned problems. It is an object of the present invention to provide an information recording/reproducing apparatus that provides copyright protection by preventing the production of pirated versions or the like while enabling information to be recorded for the purpose of personal hobby.
In order to attain the aforementioned object, the present invention employs the following configurations.
An information recording/reproducing apparatus according to a first configuration of the present invention records information on an information medium. The information recording/reproducing apparatus determines whether the information medium may be unloaded when receiving a command for unloading it to the outside. The information recording/reproducing apparatus allows the information medium to be unloaded only when judging that the unloading is allowed and rejects the unloading of the information medium when judging that the unloading is not allowed.
An information recording/reproducing apparatus according to a second configuration of the present invention records information on an information medium. When information whose copyright must be protected is recorded on the information medium, the information recording/reproducing apparatus also records apparatus information for specifying the information recording/reproducing apparatus on the information medium.
An information recording/reproducing apparatus according to a third configuration of the present invention records information on an information medium. When information whose copyright must be protected is recorded on the information medium, the information recording/reproducing apparatus also records regional information for specifying the place (region) where the information is recorded on the information medium.
Thus, the above-mentioned respective configurations provide an information recording/reproducing apparatus with a simple configuration that enables copyright protection and personal use of information whose copyright must be protected to be compatible.